This is quite a macabre film from Melies, depicting an "orgy" that Emperor Justinian is having, and then he brings in Christians, puts them on stakes, and burns them. All is filmed in one scene, so it seems he tries to show how a film like this can be done with a multitude of people on the set. Also, I believe, the topic itself is so precise, with a year(548, toward the end of the Justinianic plague) in the alternative title, that it is probably also made in order to shed light on the persecution of Christians at the time - either that or that it simply gave him a reason to put fire on people in a film. Somehow, it is misplaced for its time, but in other ways it shows that the effects have matured and the sets are much more detailed than early Melies. He was still trying new things, and even to shock a bit too.